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Hearing aids: more or less processed output?

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I wear Oticon More 1. They sound very natural to me and work great in easy/quiet ambients. However, I was still unable to fully comprehend speech in not so very challenging situations (echoey places, small restaurants, etc.).

To investigate that, I have two programs running side by side, both with the exact same prescription and fitting formula (). They differ as follows:

  • P1 was pretty much as Oticon recommends it to be: “Neural Noise Suppression”, “Transient Noise Management”, “Spatial Noise Management”, and “Feedback Management” all toggled ON; and mics set to “Neural Automatic”.
  • P2 went the other direction: “Neural Noise Suppression”, “Transient Noise Management”, “Spatial Noise Management”, and “Feedback Management” all toggled OFF; and mics set to “Fixed Omni”.

My impression is that P2 allows me to have a much easier time understanding people, hearing music in that environment, and being aware of the complete soundscape. On top of that, I was relaxed and not experiencing any sort of discomfort. On the other hand, P1 frequently annoys me with what I perceive as “unnatural” sound behavior, especially noise suppression (that often seems to take a bite of the human voice as well).

Although I still rely on those digital assistive features in more complex situations, I have been using P2 for most of my day and am very happy. IMHO, this is the true embodiment of Oticon’s “brain hearing” or “open sound”…

I post my experience so anyone else struggling to get the best out of these hearing aids could explore that with hers/his hearing care professional. Perhaps I am an outlier, perhaps my brain is a bit odd, or perhaps for my hearing loss less “sound meddling” is more.

E! You are on to something. I’m sure more Oticon wearers will chime in here, but even as a Phonak wearer, I can totally relate to your irritations and annoyances.

I have my Noise Management dialed WAY down. I simply don’t want it reducing the volume across the frequency board whenever someone steps on a twig! I have asked my audi if there’s a way to boost SPEECH frequencies and dial down other ones, but I just don’t think that’s happening with my Phonaks, so I still get into situations where I put the aids into, say “Music” so I get just the actual sound and no tinkering by the aid’s brain.

There is likely a happy medium where you can adjust some things and not others. Too many things dialed down probably is like over-medicating, and you’ll end up with consequences in hearing that are not pleasant.

Along that line, I got rid of my Comfort in Echo program cuz the newer Phonak Lumity Life aids actually do a noticeably better job of adjusting to ambient sounds and acoustic challenges than my older Phonak Marvels.

MANY here seem to have a brain that I simply lack. They wax poetic and positive about Oticon’s natural sound that lets the human BRAIN make sense of it. But the Oticon OPN aids I trialed for NINE MONTHS several years ago were a disaster for me, no matter how many times I had them adjusted.

If you’ve got the latest and greatest Oticons, be persistent with the adjustments and programs till you get a listening experience that you like. Keep us posted on what works for you.

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